the 096/01m internal harness DIY...enjoy!

[rychas1]

this is intended for those who have basic tooling skills and can turn a bolt or 2. damaging your tranny is your own risk. these are mere guidelines. some steps i skip and some i dont. but this was done from my own eyes. you may do it slightly differently. also to be noted, this strip contains the internal fluid temp sensor. so if u are running hot (tranny) and /or u read vagcom showing a high/strange temp for the trany fluid, this harness is again, bad. the code that wouldnt go away for me was ev3/n90.

*if you need a solenoid, there are other places to go. this place works for me*
http://www.makcotransmissionparts.com/75421A.html done.

symptoms...

1. you run vag-com, and the codes are solenoid related, and sometimes jumps around, from different solenoids or even all of them, chances are this internal harness is bad. external wiring should not be overlooked, but i assume uve already covered those basis. just because it was changed before doesnt mean it cant go bad again. its wire soaked in hot fluid . anyway on with the pics.

get the car up and level...

tranny shield...

2 left bolts...

2 right bolts...

all 17mm...

4 pan bolts...

all 10mm...

right side, get the back ones too!

drain bolt...

5mm hex or allen...

yuck! its NOT supposed to be milky browm

thats how i found the filter..sitting in the pan as so...

mmm...valve body and solenoids, harness too...the goal.

EDIT: i thought i would add this here because i get this question a gazillion times.
looking at this photo, the front of the car is <----. in this exact order, here are the solenoids, in case you ever run a scan and one pops up.
<--- ev2/n89(shift#1), ev1/n88(shift#2), ev5/n92(shift#3), ev3/n90(shift#4), ev4/n91(EPC#1)--ev7/n94(shift#5), ev6/n93 [EPC#2]. makco may say order 6 shifts, but there are only 5! 5 shift, 2 epc/tcc!remember, generic readers will give a p0758 or something. get a vag-com reading to verify to you dont waste time replacing stuff.

filter seal stuck in valve body...

cleaned ribbon harness...stick a very tiny flathead under the orange clip to remove each connector. be gentle but it will come off.

ribbon exiting top of tranny...bentley says remove starter. dont! no need, honestly.

where it connects to main tranny harness on top of tranny. that bracket is held down by a 10mm nut. makes removal easier.

that round clip is a b!tch to remove, but be gentle. and dont lose that!

freed connector! whew.

back down to tranny...

old bottom and new top

more to come.

Modified by rychas1 at 12:11 PM 6-15-2008

Modified by rychas1 at 12:20 PM 6-15-2008

Modified by rychas1 at 11:50 AM 7-1-2008

Modified by rychas1 at 11:53 AM 7-1-2008

Modified by rychas1 at 12:30 PM 6-8-2009

Modified by rychas1 at 9:18 PM 6-8-2009


Modified by rychas1 at 11:42 AM 7-28-2009

[royer25]

Your wasting your time, I posted a full valve body break down w/ tips on cleaning one, and all the people here gave me nothing, no comment, nothing. No one here cares, if they didn't post it, then it is crap to them. Most everyone here that knows anything about vw's went to school for them and they expect everyone with an automatic to want to swap to a manual. I wouldn't waste too much time helping out these ungratefull people out if i was you, but have at it, have fun watching your post sink into the archives.

A lot of regulars will probably post like a mofo on this post now because I said what I said, there like that, they just want to prove anyone else wrong, no matter what. Hell, if i wasted all that money becoming a vw stupified teck, I'd probably turn into a stupid, anal, retared, know it all, if i'm wrong i'm mad, erictile sucking, stupid answering, knee burnt, ***** loving, man butt loving, honda driving, buick loving, chevy touching, ford fixing, vw loving fool. (there a fool because VW's suck), really though, the people on here that love vw's love them because they work on cars for fun. If you don't like working on cars then you'll hate your VW. If you buy one, you better buy a new one under warranty, or your wasting your money. Old VW's are for sale because the people who are selling them are tired of paying for repairs. Enough said.


Modified by royer25 at 5:41 PM 6-15-2008

[rychas1]

man i totally understand, but honestly i am posting this for ppl like u, or others that DO care. ppl think im nutz for even having 3 automatics! but screw them...i dont waste time thinking about waht ppl think. im documenting this for my own future reference, if anything. i fix stuff, i dont punk out and swap 5speeds im not looking for a pat on the back, but honest facts. simple.

[cypaul]

I may not have a use for this now. But I have added this to my ATF Bookmarks Tab.
Thanks

[petesell]

nice write up. thks.
so you have no method for testing individual solenoids? i was told that you can 'swap' solenoids to test them, although i was also told that there is one particular solenoid in the 01m whose function is such that it cannot be swap tested. naturally, this is the solenoid of mine that went bad (biting lip). so i'm having the harness replaced, as well as the solenoid (taken from another 01m working tranny). with these sophisticated trannies i can't understand why they don't have a diagnostic to determine whether it's the solenoid or the harness

[rychas1]

yea bentley does have the ohm values of each solenoid, but the codes indicate harness damage to some degree. i suck at wiring testing, so i didnt do that. this wa is easier to me. if it throws the same codes, im replacing EVERY solenoid. now that ive been in there, it should be much quicker next time.

[rxfx101]

could this be why my VAD (yes, not VAG) wont talk to my trans? i can connect to any other 01m and have no issues, but my trans shifts like crap and hops in an out of overdrive. i cant connect so i cant diagnose! its so annoying! i personally am swapping to manual due to future motor upgrades. however i am buying a wagon that is auto for my girlfriend and i am going to rebuild the unit that is in my car currently when i pull it. however, i would like to connect and have all the communication features working correctly before i do.

oh, and the reason i am rebuilding this one and swapping it in is for less downtime and a solid trans.

[rychas1]

day 2 progress...

new harness in, nice and clean

harness exiting tranny back to the top

cleaned tranny pan

i changed my oil also, but thats nothing to post about...


Modified by rychas1 at 9:55 AM 6-20-2008

[rychas1]

on with the finish...

new filter on...

new pan gasket studs...

new pan gasket...

cleaned TQ plate...11mm bolts btw.

pan shield in place..

procedures from there. i refilled with 3L of the vw spec fluid. ran the shifter thru each gear while connected to vag-com. it recognized each shift as indicated on the screen. no codes came up. i checked the overflow tube when the temp reached 44*C. a drop of 2 came out. sealed it all up. done

[aceperry]

Totally excellent pics dude, and especially great lighting. What did you use and how did you do the lighting? Everyone here could use a tip or two from you.

[rychas1]

well my camcorder take horrible pics. luckily i figured out how to use my fluorescent shop lamp to help that situation i just held the lamp behind the camera.

[DerVogelBenannteMyst]

thank you for posting. i like having a auto and i am looking for as much information as i can about them. to bad i have the 5-speed tip but this is a great help for poeple out there who enjoy there auto's

[rychas1]

the tip has some of the same components, at least when it comes to this stuff. so it can help some.

[DerVogelBenannteMyst]

Quote, originally posted by rychas1 »

the tip has some of the same components, at least when it comes to this stuff. so it can help some.

i did not know that. i havent looked into it to much. but i need to start. my tranny is shifting hard and im getting close to 60k witch is when i want to fo t-belt and trans fluid.

[rychas1]

i just realized i never answered you back. im sorry. but if u cant connect via vag (or vad) its the tcu, not this. check the tcu is plugged in or even good for that matter. swap a known good tcu, reset basic settings, then try to scan

[sys3175]

Quote, originally posted by rychas1 »

well my camcorder take horrible pics. luckily i figured out how to use my fluorescent shop lamp to help that situation i just held the lamp behind the camera.

Yeah, Florescent work well with camcorders. I use a Canon 20D SLR with DayFlo Florescent studio lights myself.. Of course, I'm more a photographer then mechanic..

[vwdrajver]

Excellent post.
I have just one question:
Shouldnt you get a bit more than just the two drops (if i understood corectly)?
I think your oil level is a bit too low.

Bye, Blaz.

[divineVR6]

so this is the harness for each solenoid. is this the similar process for the 3rd gear solenoid wire loom i had talked to you about?
i have the rest of the car fixed now, last part is the 3rd gear, its in limp mode do you remember talkin to me about it?

good write up

people do read an pay attention to these

[wolfsbur]

Anything that helps folks feel more able to try their own 096/01M repairs is a good thing--great post!

Thanks...

[moveovr1]

I changed the oil 180,000 miles and still pulling as if she was new

[Dorin18]

rychas1, I'm having some problems with my 01m. VAG-com gives me a code related with solenoid 6 or harness. I just checked the solenoid and seems to be ok (4.5 ohms) so I'm thinking the harness is bad.
Can you tell me, please, where you found your cable and how much you paid for it?

[divineVR6]

http://www.bulkpart.com/Mercha...unt=2

is a link to the harness he gave me a while back

[Dorin18]

Thank you!
I'll remove the harness today and see if there s anything that I can do to fix it. If not...I'll buy a new one.
And thanks for the R&I post!

[rychas1]

keep us posted!

[Dorin18]

I removed the harness and checked for continuity. I found one open circuit (the one for solenoid 6, as the vag-com software said).
The problem was located in that plastic block that connects the inside ribbon to the outside wires. My particular wire was broken inside that connector. Since I wanted to use the car asap, I drilled a small hole in the connector, put a small piece of wire through it and solder it on both sides to the corresponding wire and pin.
I double-checked for continuity and everything is ok.
I will install it tomorrow, pun new ATF (probably Mercon V) and filter and take it for a spin.
BTW, my old ATF was quite dirty (115KMiles) so I plan to do another fluid change after a few miles.

[divineVR6]

how much of a pain is it to replace the solenoid. from the pics it looks like you just have to remove those 6 bolts on the side and pull it out..?

[Dorin18]

Removing the solenoid is the easy part. As you said, you need just to remove the plate that holds the solenoid in place.
For me, the real pain was to remove the harness plugs from solenoids without destroying them. It seems that I didn't do a good job and most of my plugs were damaged. I realized that when I wanted to reinstall the old harness: 5 out of 7 plugs did not stay in place by their own. I had to do an unorthodox thing and tie them down with a piece of wire.
Even now I don't know how to remove the plugs without destroying the plastic clips. I tried with a small flat head screwdriver and it seemed to thick so I used a small piece of metal cut from a soda can. Even with that I didn't have much success in getting the plugs out easily. There must be a secret trick out there...

[jljohnson85]

Dude this write up is awesome. Mad props to you.

[rychas1]

thx. i just got fed up with 0 information readily available for this common issu with 4 speeds. it was long overdue. to all that benefit

[divineVR6]

so its my 3rd gear thats messing up, so is the just the 3rd solenoid back from the front of the tranny?

[rychas1]

what solenoid does vagcom say?

[divineVR6]

3rd. so its it the 3rd solenoid from the front of the tranny or the back of the tranny. front as in the rad side or back as in the firewall

[rychas1]

no, if its n90 (#3 solenoid), that actually 4th position back from front of car/tranny.

[divineVR6]

thanks

[rychas1]